[Atlantis/Monogram 1/67 B/A-26]

Oh that’s a beautiful finish! My dad crewed on those with the Air Force Reserve and was very proud of that type. He bought me that model when I was a young boy to show me what he flew in. 

[1/48 Hobbycraft T-33A Shooting Star]

That is a real beauty of a build! Such an iconic aircraft!  Your NMF work is excellent. Somebody around here has a real one at the local airport, and every now and then you can catch sight of it when he decides to take it up for a flight.

[1/48 Hasegawa F4U-5's and good memories.]

Those are some great looking builds! Sorry for your loss of a friend. But he lives on with his contributions in your modeling work. 

[Tamiya 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf-109G-6 (again).]

That’s one very sharp looking Gustav 66Fox 👍🏼 Bravo on painting nearly all of the markings yourself! That seems to be something of a growing trend.

[So, who wants to host in 2024, 2025?]

Not saying it’s broken at all. But perhaps expanding the convention window of late spring thru early fall might open up different opportunities for cost & lodging affordability. After all, mid summer is peak tourist season and most hotel chains & airlines raise their prices accordingly. A simple survey put out to the members to see how that larger time window would be received wouldn’t change anything aside from gathering information. 
 

[So, who wants to host in 2024, 2025?]

What are the demographics of attendees for Nationals? Most members I see at contests, club meetings, etc. tend to be of the age quite beyond where they are parenting school age children. I’d put it at less than 20% of membership has to worry about children & school schedule conflicts with moving the Nats to earlier or later in the year. 

[1/32 F-86H Saberhog]

The AK Aluminum is very convincing for the NMF. You have built another beauty! 👍🏻👍🏻

[1/249 Revell USS Buckley]

That turned out beautifully! All you need is a similar scale U-Boat and you would have the pair from The Enemy Below. 😉

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

Mark, those are some great additions.... especially the tools.  

[The Fly (1958)]

Excellent work! I really like how all your paint work turned out.

[Slovak Gustav! 1/72 Tamiya Messerschmitt Bf-109G-6.]

Great work on your Gustav 66F. Hard to believe that is 1/72. 🤔

[1/35 B-4 203mm Howitzer 12 Hour Build Challenge]

Thanks Mark. Sorry to see that you were unable to make the Zoom session today. I’m looking forward to seeing your Braille Scale B-4 kit when you get around to it.

Today was session 2 of the 12 hour challenge. I deviated a bit from the instructions and concentrated on the tracked bogie units for the carriage. Between clean up of flash and ejector pin marks and the high parts count of the two units, that area took about 1 hour longer than I had thought, but I was still able to get them completed. I also build the spade assembly for the trail.

Then of course I had to test fit all of the assemblies completed so far…

Next month I should be able to get assembly completed, then painted, and call this beast done…. Then it will be the most impressive looking artillery piece on my towed artillery shelf.

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

So the day before yesterday at AZ AMPS, we had our meeting and another continuation of the estate sale of a local modeler who passed on late last year. All proceeds from sales are donated to Wounded Warrior Foundation, as that was the guy’s favorite charity.
So, for a good cause, I picked up these items….

This one is maybe about 30% started…

This one was barely started, maybe 5% at most…

this really nice crew set…

and this base, of which I had recently been looking for something along these lines… plus a few odds and ends that really aren’t worth taking photos of…

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

These online purchases arrived last week… for my 1/48 air forces

One can never have too many Roundels or Squadron Codes…

and these gorgeous 3-D printed TERs of the type used by F-16s finally came in from Ukraine…

[1/35 B-4 203mm Howitzer 12 Hour Build Challenge]

Thanks Robert. The Trumpeter kit was a bit more expensive than my budget allowed when I bought this one. This one does have me questioning myself for putting this one forward for a 12 hour build candidate.

[1/35 B-4 203mm Howitzer 12 Hour Build Challenge]

Yes, it’s that time of year again. No not some silly game of grown men chasing a ball up and down a wooden floor. But it’s time for the annual So Cal AMPS 12 Hour build challenge. Yes, build a model from start to finish in three monthly four hour sessions during online Zoom meetings. Last month we presented our three candidate kits for the participants to vote on. This kit is what my fellow members voted for me to build- a 1/35 Eastern Express kit of the Soviet B-4 203mm Howitzer. The tracked carriage really gives it a look all its’ own.

During today’s first four hour session, I was able to get most of the carriage base completed,

All of the breech and barrel assembly completed

And I was able to get a good portion of the gun cradle assembled

And of course, I had to test fit it all together

Next month we will have the next session and I should have most of the basic assembly completed…
 

[Airfix 1/76 Matilda MkII]

Looks good Ron. You can never go wrong with a Matilda.

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

Mark I thought you already had built one of those Japanese Torpedo Boats before… 🤨 Not that double ups or second helpings aren’t allowed… 😏

[Academy 1/35 M2A2 OIF Project]

So here we go, construction has begun! I had some folks over on Armorama point out to me some corrections needing to be made so here we go.

As usual with most armor kits, this one started with the suspension and running gear. I have not yet closed up the motorization holes, but that is easy to do at this point. All the road wheels, the sprockets, and idler wheels are all removable due to their poly caps. I just put ‘em all on for this photo.

Using Vodnik’s site as reference, I started dealing with the biggest goof on this kit in my eyes, the shape of the rear hull plate and cut off the box like side portions of that part.

A bit of sanding and other trim work on the upper hull and I had the area looking much more accurate. And again following Vodnik’s guidance, I scratched up the rear spaced armor plates that go on that area. 

More to come in a few days….

[1/72 P-47B Conversion of Academy's P-47D Razorback]

Very nice looking early Jug! 

[1/48 Hobbyboss F-80 with IPMS 2022 decals]

Gorgeous build of the Shooting Star! Your NMF work is top notch. 👍🏼👍🏼

[Academy 1/35 M2A2 OIF Project]

In honor/recognition of the 20th Anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and those who served there, I’m going to be building this kit. 

I’ve got a set of AM Bigfoot tracks to replace the incorrect ones that come with the kit.

[1/48 Willy Fudd]

Very nicely done! I love the insignia on top of the radome. 

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

Mark, with this decal sheet, this one just moved up the “to do”  ladder quite a few rungs. I had bought this E-2 off Brian Casteel, which gives you a rough idea of how many years that I’ve had the kit in my stash.

Gil, I’ve got different decal sheets with most of the different Air Wing 8 USS  Nimitz squadrons, at least the F-14s and A-7s in 1/48. But finding out about this company and all of their available sheets was really a pleasant surprise.

[The Haul, or what you've recently bought.]

Many years ago, I picked up a 1/48 Kinetic E-2 from a guy at IPMS who was selling one off. I got a great deal on the kit, but I was never satisfied with the kit markings options. Recently I found out about this decal company, HADModels that made decal sheets for the aircraft in the movie The Final Countdown, including the E-2 seen in the film. So I found a set online from one of my favorite eBay stores and now I have the problem of the kit decal choice solved.

now to get around to building the beast…